colour theories

Bauhaus colour wheel

Chevreul colour wheel.

Colour and the interaction of colour can make or break a painting. Colour theories are important to the artist, but also at the same time can be quite complicated. I have been looking at some of the main colour theorists and have attempted to simplify the main points of there theories.

Goethe (1749-1832) expanded upon Newtons original colour theory, claiming that there was a pychological effect to colours. He argued that plus colours such as yellow conveyed light,action,force or warmth. Therefore the minus colours such as blue equate with shadow, weakness, coldness and melancholy.

He developed a colour circle where the circle colours are categorised into two sides positive and negative.

Colours from the positive side such as yellow, reddish yellow , yellowish red he argued that they are considered quick, lively and aspiring.

Colours from the negative side such as blue,reddish blue, blueish red he considered that when colours are selected from the negative side it creates soft feelings such as anxiety and restlessness.

When colours are selected from both sides the "splendid" effect is produced. To conclude Goethe theory was not so much about about creating a specific emotional effect but aimed at a balanced state.

Chevreul (1839) colour theories impacted upon the Impressionists and Post Impressionists.

He believed that complementary hue pairs create greatest harmony. When two colours are disharmonius they should be separated by black or white. White being used if the two colours are dark and black to be used if the two colours are light. Chevreuls theories have been regarded as the most important colour harmony principles.

He argued the two most important concepts known as optical mixing and simultaneous contrast.

Simultaneous contrast occurs when optical illusions are created by two bold colours placed in close proximity of each other interact with each other which then enhances the colours. For example a red and green placed next to each other will make each colour appear much brighter and more vibrant.

Optical Mixing

occurs when two primary colours are overlayed upon one another which appears to create the secondary colour. ( Seurat used this effect in his pointillist paintings)

Johannes Itten

Itten created a twelve hue colour wheel that forms contrasting elements.. He departed from Goethes original colour theories which generalised on the psychological effects of colour on people . He considered it to be a more personal and subjective reaction.

He explored "Successive Contrast" which is when the brain creates after images of colour. For example if the viewer stared at red then the brain produces an after image of green; reds complementary colour.

Itten taught at the Bauhaus and his theories were influential on artists such as Klee, Albers and Kandinsky.

colour studies for abstract seascape and Barbara Rae RA

These are three of the colour studies, one of which I may use to create a final painting.

I have been looking at some of the paintings by Barbara Rae RA, whose paintings and prints are inspired by the landscape.

She is inspired by the influence of man on the landscape and the patterns of history that are left. The structure of the landscape is just the beginning which will lead Rae on to an experimental studio process which often involves collage .

In a lot of her work it looks as though she has pulled back the paint to reveal colours underneath and maybe used some monoprints . Its quite hard to find anything about her and I am not sure whether it would be alright for me to show her works directly on here but I have found some of her beautiful images here
http://www.barbararae.com/

I find myself drawn to her use of strong complementary colours, and her loose brushstrokes that seem to evoke such a strong emotional sense of place.

Nicolas De Stael and Patrick Heron

Patrick Heron, Emerald with Reds and Cerulean 1977

Nicolas De Stael, Seaside Railway Line in the Setting Sun .

'Little by little I felt constrained against painting an object in its own likeness, because, in front of an object, a single object, I was overwhelmed by the infinite multitude of other objects existing with it. It is not possible to think about an object absolutely as it is; there are so many others there as well that the possibility of expressing that one object in plastic form vanishes. So I have sought to achieve a free form of expression' (N. de Staël, quoted in D. Sutton, 'Nicolas de Staël: A lecture', undated)

Nicolas De Stael was influential within the group of French Avant Garde painters just after the war.

The paint was applied in thick painterly brush stroke, he replicated what he saw into simplified shape and form, evoking distance and light conveying a convincing impression of landscape.

There is something about his paintings that really appeal to me. The thick painterly brushstrokes which gives the painting a real, personality . Its hard to explain, and I can't put my finger on it . They just give a real sense of place and energy without any real representation .

Another artist that I think paints with a similar style is the st Ives painter Patrick Heron.

Heron was concerned with the portrayal of space as colour, His paintings are strong in colour and the compostion has a strict decorative order. Often in response to the natural landscape and environment. He produced large canvases which often consisted of huge organic shapes which often appear to hover against the background colour. He focuses on the juxtaposition of colours which is inspired by his initial interest in light and colour and the artists, Matisse, Bonnard and Rothko.

This project has been a challenge on every level for me. I have had to get past a real mental block and a fear of portrait painting. I have every respect for artists who specialise in portrait paintings, as I think that it is one of the hardest subjects there is and to be able to produce a painting that captures the character of the sitter is something that is quite tricky to achieve. This was the first question to me. How would I go about capturing an essence of someone? In a photograph it is often the eyes that tend to provide a main focal point, and I can remember as a child the eyes of portraits seeming to follow you around the room, so I wanted to try and capture the sparkle and life of the eye.

I also wanted to achieve an overall softness to the character and I didn't want to have harsh or dramatic contrasts of light and colour, building up the skin tones slowly with thin layers of colour. Putting down the basic shadows and shapes in umber and then slowly building up the skin tones. I found the oil paints ideal for their blending qualities.

The flowers in the background was inspired both by the artist Redon and Sir Peter Blake's "Fairy paintings." I liked the idea of portraying her in a feminine, mystical and dreamlike way and I think the subtle flowers help add to the overall character of the portrait. Having also seen some Pre Raphaelite paintings at the Ashmolean museum was also part of the inspiration . It was interesting to find out that the victorian language of flowers where each flower has a meaning and the placement of a flower in a painting was symbolic. The flowers in Redon's painting are not painted in a way that are recognisable but are painted in soft and dreamlike way, this was more of what i wanted to achieve.

This is very much in keeping with the idea of Peter Blake and his fairy paintings. By taking the image of a youthful figure (in this case my daughter) I have transformed her image in a similar way to Blake. Whether this would be an image she would approve of , probably not . But it was just an idea I wanted to explore. I need a bit of artistic license here.

What Have I achieved? I suppose I have actually gained a bit more confidence in painting portraits. Having worked out the proportions, the triangle of the face and getting that right. The likeness became more apparant, and it became easier to tell what was and wasn't right. Painting children or young adults is harder in one repect as there seems to be less character to the face . There are no real defining lines. Older faces often tell a story, the life of the sitter is very much etched out on their face with the laughter lines or the worried furrowed brow.

Using a paint that I am not used to working with pushed me even harder. I love the blending qualities of oil paint, though the drying time was both a blessing and a curse. Portrait painting as a whole is one of the subjects that does least interest me, so I am glad i have had to try it and I am fairly pleased with the result, but I can't envisage myself ever calling myself a portrait painter.

Having seen some of the more contemporary portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, I am considering cropping the painting . I have seen several portraits where the head fills the entire canvas and there is no space, the impact is really striking and it is something that I may consider. i am not going to crop it straight away as I need to be truly sure it would be a good move. I have cropped the images on photoshop and I quite like them, but it would mean losing some of the flower details, but I guess that is work in progress.

My tutors comments weren't nearly as harsh as I thought they might be, regarding this painting. One major fault that I actually noticed myself when I looked at the painting again with fresh eyes is the allignment of the ear. It is too far down, its obvious now and I could kick myself for not noticing before, but when a work is challenging it is easy to become somewhat blind to obvious mistakes. I will need to look at this again.

I have also used photoshop to darken the image, as I feel this may be of some benefit. I want to see what it looks like first cropped and darkened before I make the final alterations.

I ahve nearly finished the actual portrait, I am going to wait for the paint to dry and add some more highlights to the eyes and I think I need to do some more work to the shoulders as there is not enough shadow and highlights. In the backround I think I will add some more flowers.

portrait what I want to achieve ?

At this stage I think I have a bit of an idea of what I want to achieve in this portrait. I am keen to try and portray a mystical edge to the image. I particularly like the way that Redon has surrounded his sitter with flowers , this gives the whole image a different meaning and seems to convey a soft feminine feel . I am keen to try and capture a similar feeling with this painting, but also at the same time I would like to paint in a more contemporary style, the fairy paintings by Peter Blake are similar to the kind of style that i would like to try . I have decided to paint her slightly turned to the side, but looking directly out from the picture plane.